Welcome to Soto Lab

Vision

Commitment

Impact

Acknowledgement

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We study the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases associated with the misfolding and brain accumulation of proteins, particularly focusing in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's and prion-related disorders. We perform multidisciplinary research, aiming for highly innovative discoveries and rapid translation of the basic science knowledge into medicine. Our goal is to eradicate Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and related diseases before it produces clinical symptoms and brain damage by combining the development of early diagnosis with efficient treatments.

Our team consists of highly motivated individuals committed to develop knowledge that will change the way we think today. In accordance, we have implemented many different strategies to enable us to accomplish our dream, including specialized mentoring strategies to improve the learning experience of our trainees and at the same time promote out of the box thinking. To specifically engage and advance our trainees, the junior faculty assist Dr. Soto by also being actively involved in mentoring and teaching. Our group members are also strongly encouraged to participate in the scientific community outreach.​Furthermore, we organize a scientific discussion series, aimed to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration within and outside the Texas Medical Center, to take advantage of rapidly advancing technology in order to deliver cutting edge science.

​Members of Congress tour our lab to learn about Alzheimer’s research in Texas.

Media coverage

Our work in the views of the other renowned scientists in the field:

​Charles Weissmann, M.D., Ph.D.

​Professor Emeritus,Scripps florida

Pierluigi Gambetti, M.D.

Professorcase western university​

Prof. Dr. med. Adriano Aguzzi

Director,Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital Zurich

“An important advance was provided by the invention of protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA)..This experiment convincingly shows that PrPSc and infectious agent had been generated in vitro [Weissmann,C. (2005) Cell 122, 165-168].”

“The PMCA system offers golden opportunities to further investigate PrPC to PrPSc conversion. The robustness of PMCA provides the opportunity to study conversion analytically and mechanistically [Zou,W.Q. and Gambetti,P. (2005) Cell 121, 155-157].”

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“Another milestone was the invention of the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) assay by Soto and colleagues, which can be loosely compared to PCR [Aguzzi,A. (2007) Nat. Methods 4, 614-616].”

“The evidence for this protein-only hypothesis was circumstantial for two decades, yet recent reports, including the clever exploitation of the new technology of protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), have all but settled all doubts of its validity [Aguzzi,A. (2008) Nat. Neurosci., 11: 1239-1240].”

“A major advance in the field was the development of a procedure called protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA)…. In a landmark study, the PMCA product amplified and serially diluted in this manner was demonstrated to cause TSE disease in animals [Cobb,N.J. and Surewicz,W.K. (2009) Biochemistry, 48: 2574-2585.]”

​“In a major breakthrough, brain homogenate-based reactions were developed that allowed unlimited amplification of both PrPres and robust prions that were infectious for wild-type rodents [Caughey,B. et al. (2009) Annu.Rev.Biochem. 78: 177-204].”

We would like to express our deep gratitude to the families, foundations and agencies for their trust, generous gifts and funding. Their support is a crucial element, fueling our research progress and achievements.